


Waking up speechless

by NYWCgirl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 14:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3573368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Waking up from the coma was one thing…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking up speechless

**Author's Note:**

> This story fills my `loss of voice´ square on my h/c bingo card. This story is a sequel to Waking up, whihc can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568133.  
> The fic was originally posted on september 26th 2014.

When Neal could stay awake long enough that the medical staff could make sure that he was breathing adequately on his own and his saturation was within normal margins, they were talking about extubating. By now, Neal was used to the machine breathing for him and it didn´t evoke panic attacks anymore.

Neal dreaded the moment, even if he wanted to get rid of the tube in his throat as soon as possible. Neal woke up from one of his naps because of commotion in his room. When he opened his eyes, there was a doctor and nurse by his bedside.

"Mr. Caffrey, we are going to extubate. I need you to relax and cough as deep as you can." the doctor explained.

The nurse deflated the cuff of the vent and on her mark Neal coughed. The experience was quite unpleasant but Neal was glad to be able to take a deep breath on his own. He wanted to ask where Peter was, but the doctor told him to spare his voice. The nurse fed him some ice chips and soon Neal started drifting off again.

He woke by the sound of rustling of a newspaper. That could only be Peter, everyone else he knew, read their papers on a tablet. He tiredly opened his eyes and blinked to clear his vision.

"Hey Neal, relax." Peter told him.

"…" Neal mend to greet Peter, but no words came out of his mouth. He looked confused around.

"Relax Neal, I will get you some ice chips." Peter got up and walked over to the nurses´ station. Adele, the duty nurse assured him, that she would bring some ice chips.

A couple of minutes later, she walked in and handed Peter the cup.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Caffrey?" she smiled at him.

"…" Neal gestured at his throat.

"Not to worry, Mr. Caffrey, this is probably due to the vent. Let the ice chips melt in your mouth and I will ask the doctor to come over and have a look."

Neal typed on the table Mozzie had brought him - Is this normal?

"It is rare, but not unknown, it sometimes happens. A sore throat and hoarseness after intubation are normal symptoms. But your total loss of speech should be checked out. In the mean time I will set you up with a cool aerosol mask."

Once she had Neal settled, he sighed with relief. The coolness indeed made his throat feel better. Neal´s doctor came by but as he was not specialized in throat problems, he would consult with a colleague.

The next morning, the doctor asked if his hoarseness was still a problem.

"What hoarseness?" Neal typed. "I don´t have a voice!"

"let´s have a look." the doctor said confident. "Yeah, I see what the problem is. I would like to consult with another specialist, but it seems that you have damaged your vocal cords when you extubated yourself. The cuff that makes sure that the vent stays in place was not deflated when you pulled it through your vocal cords. But like I said, I will consult with another specialist to tackle this problem."

The rest of the day, between naps and examinations for his head injury, Neal googled the term ´self extubation´. What he read didn´t make him feel better. Had he really done this to himself? He couldn´t remember but Peter had told him what happened, so it must be true.

The next day, the specialist, an otolaryngologist, presented himself with what looked like some sort of torture device. It turned out to be a camera to look inside Neal´s throat to assess the damage to his vocal cords.

Neal didn´t like the look on the doctor´s face and his feelings were confirmed when the doctor explained that his left vocal cord was paralyzed and the right one had edema. The trauma was surely caused by Neal´s self extubation. However, the doctor was confident that Neal hadn´t lost his voice permanently, but the recovery would take time.

The doctor started Neal on 10 mg dexamethasone and also made an appointment for a checkup the next week.

 

*  *  *

 

Three days later, Peter entered the hospital and found Neal busy with his tablet.

"How are you holding up?" Peter asked.

[In a Stephen Hawking voice] ["I am fine, thank you. Maybe a bit of a headache."]

Peter looked perplexed at the tablet in Neal´s hands.

["It is a gift from Sally and Mozzie"]

"Figures." Peter smiled.

 

Over the next ten days, due to the rest and medicine, there was a reduction in hoarseness and disappearance of the edema.

After one month, a stroboscopy showed normal movement of the left vocal cord and the hoarseness was decreasing.

The doctors were optimistic that Neal´s voice would make a full recovery.


End file.
